


Of Cops and Criminals

by Firewhisperer13



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: A little bit of gore, Alternate Universe - Horror, Comedy, Dark Comedy, Gen, Ten Minute Power Hour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24737767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firewhisperer13/pseuds/Firewhisperer13
Summary: "It’ll be the same routine every day: get the food, put it on the tray, take it to the room, and leave, all before they wake up.Most importantly, never ever ask questions about who they are or how long they’ll be staying. "At least, that WAS the routine... until today.Can you help the newest victims escape? Or will all three of you end up on the menu tonight?
Comments: 7
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

(For clarification later on, Dan’s legal first name is Leigh.)

_It’ll be the same routine every day: get the food, put it on the tray, take it to the room, and leave, all before they wake up._

_Most importantly, never_ ever _ask questions about who they are or how long they’ll be staying._

The odd mixture of who-knows-what slid around and dripped from the steel plates as you set them down on the tray to take for the new victims’ final meal. Even though you weren’t supposed to ask about the length of stays, you had been keeping track for about as long as you had been stuck here, and you noticed that they almost never lasted past a day or two, if even that.

There was no way to tell when it was day and when it was night this deep under.

The only one who knew anything was the one who had found and forced you to serve this sentence in the first place. If you had been more careful, you wouldn’t be forced to do the same tortuous thing in and out, and your life wouldn’t be at the hands of a madman every single day. You wouldn’t have a uniform that always smelled of death and had made blood stains a permanent part of itself.

_Just get the food to the new ones and get out of there before he gets back. That’s all I have to do,_ you think to yourself. _I don't have to watch._

With shaking hands, you pick up the tray and push open the freezing door with your back, using a quick pace to make your way to the room where they were being housed. They were probably going to beg you for their lives, if they were even awake. Most weren’t aware enough of to understand exactly what was going on, but the occasional few weren’t drugged up enough, and when you entered the room, they would scream and beg, sometimes clawing at you to keep you from leaving until you agreed to take them with you.

And all you could do was march on with a stone face and pretend you didn’t care for them.

The lights in the hallway flickered, begging for their bulbs to be replaced, though deep down they knew it would never happen. They’d been yearning since you had started you sentence, and they would be long after you were set free. The stench lived in the walls and had no intention of moving out, only trying to cover its existence with cheap, uniform pine trees dangling from the ceiling, their Christmas-like smell having abandoned its body long ago. Maple syrup blood pooled out from the doors, having followed the path so many times that it was just a part of the design on the tiles.

_Desensitized, indeed._

Your hands remained steady as you set down the tray to open the soundproof door, the same vomit inducer hitting your nostrils, but far stronger than in the long hallway you had just made your way down, as this is where it happened. That distinct smell of rotting flesh was one you thought you had grown accustomed to, but as the shit mixed with nail polish inched down into your stomach and churned the acid, you took back that thought. It never got better, and right when you were used to the previous intensity, it would come back even stronger.

The victims in the room had never caught your attention before. They were all groveling figures crawling in their sleep, mixing and melding together into one discernable blob. None of them were stand-outs, per-se, but then again, this wasn’t some sort of reality show where everyone had to be memorable. This was the shadows of the real world, the parts that can somehow slip by everyone without ever being the subject of suspicion. As much as you hated it, there wasn’t anything you could say or do that would end in any result other than your demise. And you weren’t about to hand him the satisfaction of you becoming the next victim.

You shivered against the cold and stepped with cautious eyes and feet around the pools and chunks of god-knows-what that had been left to their own devices. You’d never seen anything that even closely resembled a mop to clean up in here, and after awhile, you had memorized the patterns the maze darted in, and could maneuver around the unpleasantries with ease. But now, with the frequency new ‘playthings’ were being brought in at, you were unable to keep up, and now had to play a balancing game with the tray as you danced around the remains.

There was no table for you to set the tray down on, things weren’t that civilized here. It was a last meal, but not the kind granted to those on death row. They had it easy, having requests taken and being given actual food to be eaten at a table. Then again, the people resigned to that fate weren’t so unbelievably confused that they were transformed into writhing beings waiting for something they didn’t understand. This place was death row on drugs, where there was no such thing as mercy for those who begged. The deaf ears always heard their cries, but never once felt a pang in their hearts to let someone go.

If it weren’t for the vaguely human part of you, these two may have been just another set of faces that blended into your subconscious before fading away, no matter how hard they begged. But curiosity is a nagging and pesky part of the human mind, and yours got the better of you just as you set the tray on the ground. A flash of gold shimmered from beneath the lanky man’s chest, and you couldn’t help yourself. You had the vaguest idea of what it might be, and although part of you was scared to know, the other part just had to reach out and touch it.

With steady fingers, you reached out and carefully slid the black piece of leather out from underneath the unconscious body, remaining crouched down as you turned it over. Sewn into the dark piece of material was a golden badge, making your heart pound as you looked it over. This badge was your way out of here, if these guys could get out of here in time. There was the vaguest shimmer of hope in your heart as you turned the leather back over in your hands. On the back of it was a plate with a name engraved on it:

_Officer Leigh Avidan_

You raised an eyebrow as you read the scratched name plate like a mantra.

_Leigh… Isn’t that a girl’s name…?_

You shook your head, getting rid of those thoughts.

_That really shouldn’t be important right now,_

Next to him, another man was curled up in a ball, shivering as though he were awake and able to feel afraid at this current moment. He was stockier than the man next to him, and clearly much shorter. His long, brown hair had a single chunk of blonde in it to frame his face, and almost matched the pieces of hay-like hairs that were poking out from the brown of his mustache. A matching badge poked out from his pocket, and with just as much subtlety and grace as last time, you pulled it out and turned it over to look at the name.

_Detective Arin Hanson._

They were both detectives, they could help you. If you could get these guys out of here, they could take you along with them.

Even though _that man_ knew everything about you- mainly your daily habits and paths- you would have detectives, police officers, looking out for you, maybe even keeping a close eye on him. This was your chance to leave, your chance to start the kind of life you’d been thinking of for a little while now.

The tall one, Leigh, suddenly started to stir, and on instinct, you turned on your heel and ran, slamming the door shut behind you. The _click_ of it locking on its own was typically a sign of finality, but this time, there was something less ominous about it. You took a few moments to catch your breath as you leaned against the door, then as soon as your mind was clear, you calmly took steps toward the room you knew you weren’t supposed to go into. The large door had a single window with wires laid inside the glass, reminding you of those doors they put on classrooms inside a school building. You could feel the dried grime around your fingers crack as you wrapped them around the handle and turned it. But it didn’t go around all the way, instead firmly stopping only a quarter way into the turn.

 _Of course it’s locked_ , you huffed in your head. _Why would a psychopath forget to lock his door?_ That’s _the true insanity…_

You knew perfectly well where the key was, but it was a room you really didn’t want to enter. It was unlocked, allowing you in whenever you wanted, but the method to get the key… it was almost inhumane. Your curiosity was too overwhelming to just let this go, however… so you sucked it up and entered the office next door.

Once the door was open, you were hit with that same nail polish and shit stench, but far stronger this time. You knew the key was behind the desk, but the fact that the source of that smell was where it was being stored was enough to make you want to give up.

But if it was what you had to do, then sobeit.

The smell only got stronger as you looked down at the amalgamation of colors dancing across what had been a person at one point or another… probably. You dreaded this part, not that you’d ever done it before. You’d seen him do it through the window one time, right near the start of your sentence, and you had nearly thrown up. There were no gloves, no apron, you just had to go for it.

The leathery skin was resistant to your hands as you reached straight into the stomach of the body. Decaying organs fell through your fingertips like water, while others nearly fell apart as soon as they were touched. The sensation wasn’t that far off from holding pudding or gelatin in your hands, allowing it to sift through over and over again. Your eyes were watering as your left arm was scratched at by something just out of your eyesight- likely a snapped rib or two, or maybe even fragments of the pelvic bone. You couldn’t take much more of this, and that’s why the moment when you finally felt the sturdy metal in your fingers was that much more of a relief. As quickly as humanly possible, you yanked it out of the body and went to clean off both yourself and the key.

You slid the key into its hole as you looked to your left and right a few times, and once you were absolutely sure the coast was clear, you turned it and pushed open the door. Inside the room were a few functioning screens on the wall, along with plenty riddled with cracks. The ones that were shattered never looked at anything in the first place, but it all just fit the atmosphere of this place perfectly.

You found the screen you were looking for, and decided to observe your subjects of interest for a few moments before deciding whether you were going to intervene or not. Leigh was now up and looking around, eyes wide and lost as he somehow managed to maneuver his long legs around everything. Meanwhile, Arin was looking around with frantic eyes, clearly trying to find some sort of exit.

“Come on, Dan! Help me find something!” he shouted, waving his arms around in a weird pattern.

 _Dan? Why would he call him Dan?_ you thought as you watched them intently.

“Look, Arin.” Even though he couldn’t see you, you felt as though he were pointing straight at you. “There’s cameras in here.”

“Probably so that psycho can stalk his prey before he kills them,” he responded absentmindedly. “Seriously, _help me_.” Arin started to yank on one of the cabinet doors, probably trying to open it without having to find the lock combination.

You’d seen enough. Reaching over as far as you could, you grabbed the small walkie-talkie off the desk and pressed the red button.

“That’s not going to do anything unless you find the combination,” you informed them.

The two men jumped and started to look around, trying to find the source of the voice.

 _“Who the fuck said that?”_ Dan demanded. A tiny smile crossed your face.

“If you want to get out of here, you’re going to listen to me.”

_“And why, exactly, should we trust you?”_ You laughed as Arin shouted at a wall, apparently thinking that was where the voice was coming from.

“I’ve been here long enough to know exactly how to get you out of there without Dr. P ever knowing. But as soon as you get out, you have to help me escape.”

_“I ask you why, again?”_

“I’ve been trapped down here, forced to serve a sentence because of a stupid mistake,” you explained. “Please, it’s only fair.”

Arin shook his head, not taking the bait of your idea, and you felt something sink inside of you. That was, until Dan spoke up.

_“Deal.”_


	2. Chapter 2

“There are a couple of flashlights in that cabinet under the sink. You might want to get those.”

You watched as Dan strode over toward the shimmering outline on the sink and reached down, opening it and pulling out the two cylindrical objects. Unfortunately, he was pointing them in the wrong direction, and as he flicked one of them on, a bright beam shot straight onto his eyes.

_“Ah! Goddammit!”_

You laughed as he moved the flashlight down and handed the other one to Arin, who turned his on in the right direction. They looked around the room, trying their best to get their bearings now that they could see.

_“Oh, yeah, I can see much better now,”_ Arin deadpanned, staring straight down at a red stain in the center of the room.

Your eyes panned over to the only clock in this entire facility, and when you read the time, you began to panic. They didn’t have much time left to get out of there, and if you wanted to escape, you needed to get them moving, now.

“Okay, we only have sixty minutes until the doctor comes back.”

_“Wait, is this the room we’re trying to escape from?”_

You sat there with your mouth open, in shock, for a moment before slamming your head down on the silver console. Either Dan was completely oblivious, or just trying to be funny. You just hoped he wasn’t already starting to descend down into madness; you needed him to focus on getting out of here.

_“Okay…”_

Suddenly, one of the pipes started to creak as whatever liquid inside the bathtub drained out. It screamed in agony, causing Dan and Arin to jump straight into the air and let out screams. You bit your tongue to hold back another fit of laughter as you watched them haphazardly shine their lights over the red, decaying metal.

_“A-All right, all right. None of that, none of that,”_ Dan rambled. _“Okay, good. Cool. We’re fine. Everything’s fine.”_

Rather than lingering on the pipe, Arin moved his light over to look at some strange writings on the wall. You quickly slammed your hand over the small mouse next to your hand and rolled the little thing in the center to zoom the image in. You could clearly see the figures now, but you couldn’t remember what they were for. Yet.

Dan, meanwhile, was fascinated by a small screen in the middle of the room, covering the ends of the pipes that could have shut them off. He crouched down to level his eyes with the black mirror, studying it intensely as he tried to figure out what purpose it served.

_“What is-”_

Arin moved from the pipes to investigate with his partner.

_“There’s, like, magic mo-”_

_“So nice of you to check in.”_

Your blood turned to ice. He wasn’t here- not even within range, and yet, he could see them, moving about and scurrying like desperate rats. You could see his smirking face in the back of your mind, watching his subjects fighting for their lives for the hope that they would escape. These were the first ones to get this far, which unfortunately, likely led him to be more enticed with them than your average subject. You mentally cursed as this thought struck you, wishing you could have just left this well alone.

_“Thank you.”_

You wished you could reach through the screen and smack Dan. It was clear he was trying to lift some of the weight from the tragic situation, but with that came the danger of him not understanding the gravity of the danger he and his partner found themselves in.

 _“I always enjoy the new patients_ ,” the doctor chuckled. _“But let’s not waste each other’s time_.”

_“Yes,”_ Arin snapped. _“Okay, he’s really-”_

 _“-psycho_ ,” he finished, cutting Arin off before bursting into uproarious laughter. It was as though he’d told some hilarious joke, and was commending himself for it.

_“Okay…”_ You watched Dan’s face as his cheery and delirious expression dropped into one coated in fear. _“Let’s wrap it up. All right.”_

_“He’s really cutting into our time.”_

Dumbfounded, you leaned back in the chair. It was as though the humor had jumped out of Dan and possessed Arin.

_“Yeah, yeah.”_

You decided to cut in.

“Detectives!”

They both snapped their heads up, and Dan spun around to look straight into the camera.

“There are letters and numbers in that nine by nine chunk of the wall over there.”

_“Why are you being so specific?” Dan_ almost sounded as though he were drunk. You clenched your teeth before chiming back in.

“Just… look at the damn symbols and try to figure out what they’re the code to.”

While Dan immediately followed your instructions, Arin hesitated, shining the light right at the lens so that you couldn’t see him.

_“How do you know they’re a code?”_ he questioned. You assumed he was glaring at you, his harsh nature returning.

“I’ve heard Doctor P mumbling something about the ‘numbers on the wall,’” you replied.

That was the truth, you _had_ heard him. He’d walked past before he could say anything about their order, or what they were used for, but at least this was better than nothing.

“I don’t know if they’re the solution to one of the locks in there, or maybe they’re just some sort of clue, but I know they’re important.”

You watched the sphere of light dance as Arin threw his hands up in the air, before slamming them back down against his sides.

_“How does that help us, if you don’t know what they’re for?”_

You reeled back slightly, offended. Here you were, trying your best to help them escape with their lives, and Arin was questioning everything you threw at them.

“I would suggest trying to find the solution to these clues, Detective Hanson.” You smirked, despite the fact he couldn’t see you. “Unless, of course, you don’t value you life enough to leave with it.”

Upon hearing that, Arin took on a look uncharacteristic from what you had seen previously. He turned to a statue, his face stuck aghast, before his hands trembled, causing the beam of the flashlight to bounce across different points on the floor.

_“R-right. Living is probably a good thing.”_

With that, he turned and approached his partner, shining his flashlight onto the symbols as the two of them stared. They appeared stumped, their expressions nearly vacant, and with a will to escape driving you, you chose to help.

“Maybe try looking elsewhere in the room,” you suggested. “Those symbols were the first thing I saw, but it doesn’t mean they’re the first clue.”

Dan looked up at the camera, wide-eyed with an expression begging for help before he even opened his mouth.

_“Wh- you- sugg-”_ The audio cut in and out for a while, before it finally gave up, and you were left attempting to read lips

“Shit…” you muttered.

Frantically, you searched around and attempted to find something, _anything,_ to fix the speakers. Sadly, there were no tools in sight, not even underneath the console, but you _did_ find a walkie-talkie. And you happened to know of two others that were in the other room. Rolling the chair back over, you pressed the button for the last time on the microphone and spoke.

“Officer Avidan, Detective Hanson. I don’t know if you actually can hear me, but if there’s any chance you can make out what I’m saying… there are two walkie-talkies over on the center counter. You need to use them now, my speakers have stopped working.”

You sat back up from the mic and glued your eyes to the screen, desperately hoping they had caught at least the last part of what you had said. While Arin remained by the symbols, Dan began to wander around aimlessly, shining his light on whatever blurry outline he could find. Your heart raced as he moved closer to the center of the room, but the second he took a left, it dropped. They hadn’t heard you… and without your help, there was no way any of you were getting out of there. Your eyes fell from the screen, and as your chest tightened, you folded your hands in your lap. At least they couldn’t see you cry.

_“I told you we couldn’t trust her.”_

Your eyes quickly dashed between the walkie-talkie and the screen. There was Dan, holding up one of the small, black radios, his finger over the button. A smile crossed your face and you started to laugh, before you fully processed what Arin had said, and snatched up your own walkie-talkie.

_“Hey, Arin, look what I found.”_

Just as Arin turned to look at Dan, you spoke.

“ _Hey!_ ” you shouted. “That was rude, Detective Hanson.”

Dan once again jumped and stared down at the little communication device, before realizing his finger was right over the button. Quickly, he brought it closer to his lips and spoke in a lower tone.

_“Sorry about that…”_ He trailed off for a second, and a look crossed his face as though he was debating something. _“Say, what’s your name? Over.”_

You almost pushed down the button, then hesitated. Sure, you could probably trust a couple of policemen, but… if you all got out and they were shouting your name around to everyone, there was a chance you’d get caught again and end up right back where you started. Dr. P was clever, not to mention that he had eyes everywhere.

But, as you thought back to Arin’s harsh words, you realized giving a name might help them trust you just a little more.

“(Y/N),” you announced. You caught Dan smile before moving back to Arin’s side, still analyzing those same symbols.Fortunately, he left his finger on the button- though you weren’t sure if it was on purpose, or he just failed to realize it- so you could hear as they tried to figure out what the deal with the grid was.

Arin stuttered, _“with the numbers, and we’ll find the clue- we’ll find the solution.”_

_“Yeah…”_ You could tell Dan didn’t really believe him. _“What the fuck are you talking about?”_

You scoffed and raised the walkie-talkie.

“I told you two to stop obsessing over those symbols. Just come back when you have a better idea of what it’s for.”

You saw Arin move back and forth, debating whether or not to really leave the wall before turning and deciding to give up. He and Dan approached the small desk pushed against the wall, complete with a blender housing a fish and an outdated Apple monitor. Arin and Dan shone their lights over everything, trying to find a clue that could help them.

_“How does he get any work done in here?”_ Arin asked absentmindedly. _“Jesus Christ, there’s, like, nothing here.”_

“It’s a mystery to me,” you quipped.

_“Yeah.”_

_“There’s… a blender.”_ You watched the little, orange fish dart back and forth. _“What’s in here?”_ Arin shone his light over it. _“Oh, there’s a fish in here, dude!”_

You laughed. Arin so easily devolved into informality when he was around Dan, and you could tell they were good friends. They seemed to be polar opposites, and yet, that’s what worked about them. Arin was the reality check in Dan’s dreams, which they needed at a time like this.

_“Aw, sick.”_

_“Do you think he feeds it?”_

“No, that’s my job,” you chimed in. “Please do not touch the fish.”

_“Oh, okay. Well-”_

_“Should we blend it?”_

You leaned your head against your hands. Despite the fact you knew that was a solution to opening the fridge, it certainly wasn’t supposed to be used now. They were smart… just not in the right order.

_“Don’t blend the fish!”_ Dan snapped.

_“Well, why not? It’s in here…”_

_“I think it’s alive, actually.”_

_“Oh it’s totally alive,”_ Arin observed.

_“Beautiful, gorgeous.”_

You’d seen enough. They were so easily distracted by each shiny object that flashed in the corner, and if they kept that up, all three of you were screwed.

“Hey, remember you have a time limit, here. We need to get cracking.”

Arin shook his head and started to wander around again, while Dan remained rooted in place.

_“So, uh, why exactly are you here? Over.”_

You thought back on everything that had happened. One minute, you’d been trying to find a way into the building, and the next, you woke up in that same room the detectives were now trapped in. Your sense for a good story had brought you there, among swirling rumors that something far more sinister occurred down below. Above looked like a totally normal office, but once you stepped into that elevator and began your descent, you were bound for hell.

“I got caught outside, trying to get in. I don’t know how he got me, just that he… did.” You shuddered at the memory of waking up, completely disoriented and confused. “Instead of doing what he does to patients- whom he typically chooses, so I guess I can understand why he didn’t want me- he gave me the choice of serving a sentence until he deemed appropriate. Figured that was better than losing my life.”

Dan remained silent, likely trying to process everything that you’d just said. It was a lot to take in, especially from someone whose face they couldn’t see, but you hoped at least Dan would have enough good faith to know you were telling the truth.

“How’d you two end up here?” you found yourself asking. Unlike you, Dan didn’t hesitate at all. You figured he must be a pretty trusting person to do that.

_“The department got an anonymous tip that they’d seen people come here and never back out,”_ he explained. _“They specifically asked Arin and I, so we got a little suspicious, but we decided to come anyway. But now hearing what you said about picking his patients… Over.” His_ trail off indicated regret.

“Hey, you couldn’t have known,” you assured. “What matters is getting out, not how you got in.”

Even though he couldn’t see you, Dan smiled. There was doubt in him for a moment about whether or not he could trust you, but now, he knew you had good intentions.


	3. Chapter 3

You watched as Arin examined a lock that was keeping a door shut, just next to a poster demonstrating how the lungs looked and functioned. Dan wasn’t catching on that his partner had found something, so he had to speak up in order to get his attention.

“Hey.” Dan looked over at Arin. “It’s a lock that we need the combination for.”

“Okay.”

You couldn’t help but feel that Arin was being a little condescending toward Dan. Sure, this was a life or death situation, but you’d seen them joking around before. What changed in such a short span with Arin that caused him to go from silly to snappy?

“Those symbols on the wall might give some sort of indication on the numbers for the lock,” you suggested, grasping at straws. You were, unfortunately, as lost as they were, at the moment.

“Are you sure about that?” Arin challenged.

You had just about reached your breaking point with Arin. Anytime you tried to make a suggestion, he shot it down in his own sort of way. He was treating both you and Dan like crap, and you were almost tempted to only give Dan the right directions, and send some false ones Arin’s way.

“No, but what else can we do?” you answered honestly. “We’re running out of time and options.”

Arin shook his head and looked down at the counter, picking up a small, white stick.

“I found a little Tetris piece.”

The force of your arms hitting your lap caused the chair to roll back slightly, pushing you away from the screen, and your walkie-talkie. Arin was like a lightswitch, changing between comedic and serious, and it came out in the worst moments.

Dan’s flashlight fell over a few splatters of blood as he approached the refrigerator against the wall. Quickly, you raked your brain, hoping you could remember what was in there. You’d opened that freezer periodically, mainly to clear out suspicious bags filled with jiggling items of various colors and bring them to the doctor.

“I’m gonna look in the freezer, Arin,” Dan announced. “You-you tell me what’s in there.”

The expired bags were in the garbage, the good ones in the hands of the doctor. Bodies weren’t kept in there- that was stupid. There may have been a box of frozen fish sticks or two, for show? But if that were the case, they would have expired because the freezer wasn’t functional.

“Okay.”

You tried your best to think now on everything you’d put in there. There were the bags of suspicious substances, and-

Your head shot up, and you remembered just before it was said out loud.

“Uh… it’s a blood bag.”

“Oh, sweet.” Dan moved from the other side of the door and shone his light on the bag of red liquid as Arin removed it.

“Okay.”

“Arin, hold onto that,” you advised. “You’re going to need it later.”

“You can’t tell us specifically what for?”

You sighed and shook your head.

“If you two are going to get out of here, I really need you to trust me. Can you at least do that for the time being?”

You watched as Arin picked up and put down his walkie-talkie over and over again, clearly trying to decide whether he could do that or not. You noticed Dan’s finger slide off of the button on the walkie-talkie, and you watched as Arin’s arms began to flail wildly, his face reddening and contorting more and more by the second. Dan, on the contrary, was attempting to remain calm, backing up as his partner became crazier and crazier. You wished you could step in and stop this from happening, but you remained helpless, unable to know what they were saying. Your throat constricted as Arin’s gestured became wilder, until Dan got the courage to stand up, stomping his foot down and shouting something. Arin’s face changed again, back to that expression you’d seen when you mentioned death, and he backed away from Dan. The taller man finally stood his ground, and you watched as Dan’s kind face contorted into anger, and he mimicked Arin’s actions from earlier, until the man nearly against the wall held up his hands and said something. You were awed as Arin slowly raised his walkie-talkie to his lips and uttered three words,

“I trust you.”

It was your turn to be suspicious.

“Do you really?”

“For the purposes of our escape, yeah.”

Despite the fact Arin couldn’t see it, you shook your head. You needed them to trust you in order for all three of you to get out, and alive, at that.

“Now, the blood bag is important, but for what? Over.”

“I can’t remember. But I’m sure I’ll be able to as we get closer to what it’s used for.”

As you were speaking, Dan turned around and looked around the room, shining his light over the walls. The tiny spotlight landed on something you had forgotten was in the room: a signed picture of Justin Bieber. A few blood splatters tainted the image, but the men still seemed just as pleased to see the picture.

“The Biebs! He wouldn’t lead us wrong.”

Danny wrapped his fingers around the frame and pulled, and the picture moved to his touch, revealing a vault with a combination lock. Arin gasped at the sight.

“Goddammit, it’s another fucking-”

“It’s another padlock!”

“Okay, great, that doesn’t help,” you sighed. “We can’t find the combination to it.”

“Hey, Dan, look at this,” Arin laughed. Dan turned around and made his way over to his partner, and once he looked down at what Arin was pointing at, began to laugh himself. You zoomed the camera in a little closer to see a record player sitting on one of the counters. That hadn’t been there the last time you’d gone into the room, but nonetheless, it had to be part of breaking the lock on the inside.

“You know who would know how to turn this on?”

“Vernon,” Arin finished. “That fuckin’ hipster.”

“You’d just tell him to get out of here, not help us,” Dan joked. You smiled at the banter between the partners.

Dan reached around the other side of the record player, closing the top over it to give it the illusion of being a suitcase, then plugged it into an outlet on the wall. He continued to stare at it, as though his gaze would get it to suddenly work, before raising the walkie-talkie to his mouth.

“Hey, this is Officer Dan. Over.”

You smirked, deciding to have some fun.

“No, no, no, don’t fucking ask for a hint, dude!” Arin shouted in the background. “The hell is wrong with you?”

“Would you like a hint, detective?” you questioned, despite Arin’s protests.

“No! We don’t want a hint! No, no hint.”

“I’d like a hint, please. Over,” Dan responded in a surprisingly calm voice.

“No, no hint! Stop, I’m not listening! La, la, la, la, la! Get that out of here.”

You watched as Arin snatched the walkie-talkie from Dan’s hands and moved it to the other side of the room, setting it down in the toilet and shutting the lid.

“All officers must be in compliance to get a hint,” you laughed. “But seriously, you need to get moving. You don’t have infinite time.”

You couldn’t hear what they were saying now, but noticed that Arin actually flushed the toilet, and a few seconds later, the blue light above it started to flash. Dan immediately raced over to the toilet and threw the lid back open, snatching the walkie-talkie back out just before the bowl began filling with what looked like blood. Arin continued to stare as the bowl nearly over flowed, then out of nowhere, reached in and grabbed something from the liquid, before it all drained back down.

That’s… not how a toilet works, you thought.

Arin handed whatever he’d picked up from the toilet over to Dan, and after a few minutes of examining it, Dan put his finger back over the button to talk to you.

“Hey, (Y/N), what is this? Over.”

You tried to zoom in on the object in his hands, but the camera only went in so far, and it was too small to tell.

“What does it look like?”

“It’s kind of like a battery thing. Over.”

You leaned back in the chair and though it over. There were so few things in that room that needed batteries to run, it shouldn’t be that hard to remember it.

And right on that thought, it dawned on you.

“Put it into that box connected to the blender!” you shouted. “You need two more of them to make it run!”

Dan practically ran over to the blender and plugged it into one of the spots in the box, then smiled down at it.

“Yes! It fits! Over.”

Arin, meanwhile, had crouched down and looked at a cabinet, fiddling with a lock.

“Hey, this looks like…” you heard him trail off in the background. He then stood back up and shone his light over the symbols on the wall once again, then flashed it down to the word ‘demon’ written on the cabinet.

It dawned on you. Those numbers under the letters matched the letters in ‘demon’ and the numbers on the padlock!

“Arin, put the numbers into the lock!”

He crouched down and started moving the numbers on the cylinder, every now and then glancing back up at the wall symbols.

“Yes… yes… yes!”

You threw your hands up into the air and cheered, spinning the chair in a circle as Arin opened the cabinet.

One step closer to getting out of here.


	4. Chapter 4

_“So, (Y/N), what exactly do you do here?”_

You froze as you watched Arin attempt to fit that ‘ _Tetris_ piece’ he’d found into place among others laid out on a counter. Dan hadn’t bothered to go that deep into your existence- not that this was a deep question- and you weren’t exactly prepared to give yourself away. That could dissolve the little bit of trust Arin had instilled in you, and should that happen, you’d likely be abandoned when they were given the opportunity to escape.

“I… well… I’m…” you stuttered, trying to find the words that wouldn’t incriminate you in their minds.

Your stuttering into the walkie-talkie must have tipped off Dan that you really didn’t want to talk, because he interjected with the stupidest distraction that could have possibly been brought up in this current scenario.

_“Uh… Arin, my hand hurts.”_

Arin only skipped a beat before replying-without looking up-, “you should sacrifice it for the blue. It’s fun.”

 _“No. I-I-”_ He sighed. _“I don’t like sticking my hand down garbage disposals. It-”_

_“-well-”_

_“-doesn’t feel that great.”_

You were still trying to find the right thing to say.

“Before I tell you, Arin-”

Dan cut you off again, “What should we do now, Arin? You can’t keep staring at those _Tetris_ pieces all day.”

He perked his head up from the white squares and looked around the room, shining his light specifically over the different posters nailed up on the walls.

 _“We need com_ bo _nations for stuff, and we have to figure out what the com_ bo _nations are.”_

 _“Oh, God,”_ Dan muttered between laughs. _“Can you learn how to say combinations please?_ ”

“Or,” you interjected,” you could open up that cabinet you unlocked and actually take a look at what’s inside.”

You’d taken a risk by speaking up. At this point, there was a chance Arin had completely forgotten his question, instead fully absorbed in trying to find the solutions to the puzzles that opened the lock. But, there was still that small dark spot in the corner of your mind, telling you he was just going to bring it up again. You bit your tongue in anticipation, hoping it was the former.

_“Good idea, (Y/N).”_

You breathed a sigh of relief and watched as Arin crouched back down and opened the slightly green doors. He remained down for a few moments, before standing back up with a bunch of old records and their sleeves.

 _“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear- The Roger Wagner Chorale,”_ he read off one of the vinyls. _“A symph-symphonia of London. There’s a lot of records in here.”_

You briefly laughed, watching as Dan picked up a few more of them. You’d forgotten that entire cabinet was full of records, and unfortunately, they really weren’t much help. You knew they had to be played in a certain order, but what said order was, you weren’t quite sure.

Or… wait. Maybe they had nothing to do with the puzzle at all… You’d already forgotten.

_“You know what? This guy may be killing his-”_

Suddenly, hands beat against the wall they were facing, causing a loud, thundering sound equivalent to applause. You shuddered at the thought- those other, suffering victims begging for their lives before they lost their lives to ‘science’. Dan and Arin, on the other hand, screamed loudly, jumping away from the wall in response.

 _“Don’t do that!”_ Arin shouted once the noise died down. Dan had closed his eyes, and when he jumped away, ended up crashing into the island in the center of the room.

_“Ah!”_

Despite the fact the three of you just had the everloving shit scared right out of you, you ended up laughing. Here were these hardened, supposedly qualified and professional members of the task force, jumping out of their skin and screaming over a just a little bit of noise. Granted, that sound jumped out of the darkness, but it was still quite amusing.

Something good came out of the fear, however. Since Arin moved out of the way, he was now in front of the picture of Justin Bieber again, and he happened to notice something carved into the chest of the picture. It almost looked like… a convenient and useful set of numbers.

 _“Is that the combination on his chest?_ ” Arin pointed right at the numbers, and his partner came up alongside him to examine.

_“Oh, God, really?”_

_“What is that? It’s a two, a ten- no, it’s not a combination.”_

Turns out, it was instead the date the picture had been signed. Why Justin Bieber had bothered to put that date on it, you’d never understand.

 _“It looks like Roman Numerals,”_ Dan pointed out.

_“Did he actually sign this?”_

_“What an asshole.”_

You rested your forehead against your fingertips. How did they always manage to get so far off track?

_“Well, I mean- why is he an asshole if he’s signing something for you?”_

_“N-No, I mean, like, I’ve- it just doesn’t seem like he’s that good of a person, honestly. I mean, he’s been through a lot, though.”_

You noticed Arin almost looked… offended. Was he secretly a Justin Bieber fan? The thought of that made you crack up.

_“Wow, okay.”_

_“Yeah, I don’t-I don’t know him in person. Ryan could probably tell us how he is. He claims he knows him.”_

First this Vernon guy, and now a Ryan. Were there others expecting them back? Why hadn’t they come to look for Dan and Arin?

Fully distracted from the main goal, Dan and Arin wandered to opposite ends of the room, focusing on different objects. Dan picked up one of the records and put it onto the player, hitting the switch to make it move and setting the needle down in the right place. A soft, orchestral piece moved its way along in the background, almost as though it were trying to comfort them. Arin, meanwhile, went back over to the computer at that desk, and began slamming his fingers down on the different keys, as though he were pretending to type something coherent.

 _“Hello, computer?”_ he yelled at it. _“Turn on.”_

Then, as though some sort of miracle sent from the powers that be occured, you watched the screen go from black to a faint, glowing grey.

_“Oh, my God! It turned on!”_

Dan had made his way over to the bathtub, at this point, but was quickly turned around by Arin’s shouting.

_“Wha-really?”_

_“It’s just white right now.”_ Dan leaned over the keyboard and stared at the monitor.

_“You did that?”_

_“Did the fish die?”_

Both detectives turned their heads to the blender, and just as the light shone on it, the little orange pet darted back and forth.

_“Oh, no. He’s fine, he’s chill.”_

_“He doesn’t like the light.”_

_“He’s chillin’.”_ Arin glanced down at the batteries, and suddenly, something dawned on him. _“Dude, I don’t wanna kill the fish.”_

_“We’re not gonna kill the fish.”_

_“Yeah, that’s what it’s… there for. We’re gonna kill the fish.”_

_“Well, okay. Well, you know what? Easy come, easy go.”_

Just as Dan finished speaking, something on the record player clicked, and you watched it shoot out another little cylinder, which rolled across the countertop until it crashed to the ground.

“Hey, Dan, another battery just came out of the record player,” you announced, trying to get his attention.

_“Thanks, (Y/N). Over.”_

He made his way back over and picked up the battery, before setting it in next to the first one he’d gotten from inside the toilet.

“Only one left. I don’t know where it is, but if it’s anything like the others, then you’ll have to do something in order to get it.”

 _“Sacrifice your hand for the blue,”_ Arin immediately interjected.

_“Dude, we’ve been over this.”_

The two of them went back to examining the records, flipping each of them over as though some great answer could be found on the back of them.

 _“Horowitz… Beethoven… “_ Dan read out the composers of the different pieces on the records.

_“There has to be something here, right?”_

_“Yeah. Why would he leave these here?”_

_“Well, to let us look through them.”_

You took a quick break from watching them sort through records to glance back over at the clock, making sure all your time hadn’t somehow passed that quickly. While you weren’t hitting that zero mark quite yet, they were getting dangerously close to not escaping.

“All right-”

 _“Ah!”_ Dan screamed, not expecting you to suddenly break the silence.

“-detectives, it’s been fifteen minutes. You have forty five left until the doctor returns.”

You nearly jumped out of your seat as Dan suddenly lost his composure.

_“NO, WE’RE GONNA FUCKING DIE! Over.”_

_“Thank you.”_ Arin’s tone was suggestive he was mocking Dan.

“ _Okay, so we’ve figured out nothing_ ,” Dan sighed, picking up and setting down a skull that rested next to the record player.

_“No, we’ve got a fuse box, and we opened a door.”_

“You’re not that far from another solution.” You tried your best to boost their morale. “You’ve gotten two of the three batteries… granted, on accident- but you also figured out the combination to that lock, Arin.

Dan looked up at the ceiling, and started to let out a sound of frustration, when he suddenly got distracted. He flicked his flashlight up to the ceiling and stared at the pine tree car scents hanging from them.

_“Oh, wait- could these trees have anything to do with anything?”_

_“I think it’s just to make it not stink in here ‘cause he kills people.”_

_“Oh. That’s considerate.”_

You scanned around the room again, trying to find the place where that last battery could be hidden. The first one had been in the toilet, the second in the record player… There wasn’t anywhere else secret in the room that it could be hidden. You resorted to scanning individual objects, but the only other place it could be, in that case, was…

You shook your head. That was stupid.

_“Whoa.”_

You looked back over to see Arin standing at a light board, flipping switches to turn on different rectangles of light on the long pannel.

_“Oh.”_

_“Whoa.”_

_“Cool.”_

You could tell the wheels in Arin’s brain were turning now, as he walked over to the counter… and picked up one of the vinyl sleeves.

_“Maybe the albums?”_

“What?” The walkie-talkie hovered around your mouth as you watched Arin, trying to see where the hell he was going with this.

 _“What are you talking about?”_ Dan questioned. Arin set one of the sleeves of an album cover on one of the lights, but it only fell down without revealing anything.

_“I don’t know! I could be just wasting our time, but-”_

_“Oh…”_

_“-at least I’m wasting our time with purpose.”_

This time, Arin removed a specific record from the sleeve and held it against the light.

“There’s gotta be holes in the records, right?”

 _“There are holes in the records- a single hole, per record.”_ Suddenly, he burped. _“Excuse me.”_

_“Well, Dan, we’re gonna get eaten by a fucking crazy, goddamn scientist.”_

_“You don’t know that. He might be cool.”_

“No, he’ll eat you,” you drawled. You noticed Arin poking around by the computer again, and sighed. Sure, there was no way he could understand it was useless for now, but it was still frustrating he was stuck on that one object. “Detective, you can leave that computer alone until you have all the clues for that puzzle.”

_“Come on. You’re-You’re punishing my cleverness? I see how it is.”_

_“Damn, it’s gettin’ sassy in here. Over.”_

_“We gotta open something, Dan!”_ Arin suddenly shouted, causing his partner to jump and fly into a bit of a panic.

_“I know, man, I know! Fuck! I’m freaking out!”_

_“We-We got letters that correspond to… letters. We’ve gotta spell out a word. We can reverse engineer the letters, right? Or- No, that’s all I’ve got.”_ You cocked your head to the side before picking up the communication device.

“Detective Hanson, what the hell are you on about?”

 _“I don’t know!”_ he replied in a strained voice. You shook your head and decided to help them move along a little more.

“If I were you, I would just make sure you’ve checked _all_ the drawers in that desk. You may have missed something.”

 _“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Dan!”_ Arin cried. But he still walked over to the desk and started to rifle through all the drawers. _“You didn’t open all the drawers?”_

_“I don’t know. Did I not open all the drawers?”_

“ _You were the one looking at the drawers.”_

_“Oh, look, here’s-”_

_“Fucking- here’s the shit!”_ Dan started to laugh at his partner’s anger. _“Dan, the whole half of the goddamn spiral’s in here.”_ Arin reached around him and pulled out a large tile with half of a red swirl drawn on it. _“For fucking-”_

_“Oh, and here’s a bunch of transparencies.”_

“You should hold those up on the four light rectangles,” you suggested.

They walked over and started to hold the transparencies against the light, rotating them in all directions as they tried to figure out what order they went in.

 _“Okay, Doctor Smith is five…”_ He muttered, looking at the transparency of a full hand. _“What could that mean? Okay, and-”_ He suddenly glared at Arin. _“Would you stop farting in the escape room, please? We already have to escape from here!”_

 _“I’ve been holding it, dude.”_ Both of them looked at each other for a second, before keeling over in laughter, unable to contain themselves any longer. You couldn’t tell whether they’d finally cracked, or they were just having fun- as they had this entire time- but you couldn’t fight a smile spreading on your face as you watched them.

 _“Did you open all the drawers?”_ Arin asked as soon as they’d managed to catch their breath.

_“I… we just opened all the drawers! You skank.”_

Arin stopped holding transparencies to look down at Dan, slightly reeling from the nickname he’d suddenly just earned.

_“Did you just call me a ska-”_

_“No,”_ Dan answered quickly as he walked over and started to stick tiles into the half of the spiral they’d found in one of the drawers. _“I was talking to… Tucker.”_

“You two are the only ones in the room,” you pointed out.

Arin turned the transparencies for a while, setting them in an order that made no sense before turning to see where his partner had gone. Dan had almost put all the pieces in place, and it clearly pissed him off.

_“What the fuck? I was putting the puzzle together, Dan!”_

_“It’s too late. My puzzle now,”_ he muttered like a child.

 _“Okay. Well…”_ Arin seemed defeated as he walked over to join Dan. _“At least, I’ll help you.”_

_“Puzzle’s mine.”_

You watched as Arin picked up a few pieces and started to jam them into different empty spaces, hoping they would fit and look right. He and Dan remained leaned over the puzzle in complete silence, and you decided to take the time to look around the room and try to remember what you could about that place. The clues were strange, laid out in the obvious, but confusing to the point where the solutions were muddled- cloudy and nearly inaccessible. But none of that mattered, because this was going to be the last time you’d have to look at that room, earlier was the last time you’d have to deliver disgusting food to sentenced men and women, it was the last time you wouldn’t know who- you mean what- was in your meals.

 _“I feel like we gotta figure out the blood shit. Do we gotta figure out the blood shit?”_ Arin jarred you from your thoughts with his shouts into the walkie-talkie.

“That’s right, detective,” you chimed in. “You should find the perfect place to put that blood bag.”

 _“That’s what I- See? I said that.”_ He pointed aggressively at Dan as he made his way over to the old, stained tub. No one could bathe in it, but it housed a little pool of coagulated blood, thick as the contents of an old can of tomato soup.

 _“Don’t point at me!”_ Dan cried as Arin bent down to investigate something dangling off one of the pipes. It couldn’t be removed by just pulling on it, but if it were slid up…

“Hey, Arin, that has a key on it,” you informed him. “I don’t remember what it unlocks, but if you slide that ring up the pipe, you should be able to get it off.”

He did as you said, starting to move it along the pipes toward the bathtub.

 _“Ugh! He just did this to waste my time,”_ Arin complained.

“Quit your whining and get that key,” you chastised.

 _“He hates the parts of video games like this,”_ Dan informed you.

You leaned back in the chair, intrigued. If Dan knew how Arin was when he played video games, that either meant they slacked on the job, or they hung out together frequently outside of work.

“So, you and Arin play video games together.”

Dan laughed before replying to your question.

 _“Yeah, we hang out pretty much every day after work and play video games for_ hours _. It gets pretty intense sometimes, and we’re always making these really stupid jokes, and coming up with bits.”_ You smirked.

“You two should do that for a living. Do people still upload videos like that to YouTube?”

_“Last I checked.”_

A look crossed his face, one that almost seemed… inspired, before chuckling to himself.

_“That would be the life, huh?”_

He turned back around and watched as Arin dragged the large ring along the pipes, hesitating when he realized what he’d have to bring it through.

 _“Oh…”_ they both groaned, looking down at the liquid with dread. With one final moment of hesitation, Arin started to move the ring through the blood. You wanted to tell them they could just push up the end of it, but… Arin was already halfway done with the task, so there was no point.

Quickly, he yanked the ring free from the coagulation and held it in front of his face: a trophy from the battle well-fought.

_“Okay, cool. We got-”_

_“There’s a saw- oh…”_

Arin pushed against the pipe, moving the end of it slightly from the tub.

 _“Oh, that- that would’ve been better.”_ It slammed back down into place. _“All right.”_

The two of them laughed at themselves, and their lack of observations, before attempting to find what the key unlocked. They first tried the refrigerator, but to no avail.

 _“Yeah, there’s a key slot there.”_ Arin jiggled the silver object around inside its hole, but nothing happened. _“Well, great, then.”_

 _“Let’s open the fridge with this key we just found.”_ Nothing happened. _“It’s not the right key… Where the hell is the fucking key?”_

“I mean, you have the key…” you pointed out.

“Well- yeah.” You and Dan burst out into laughter at Arin’s stupidity, and in the flailing of his arms, accidentally shone his flashlight straight into his partner’s eyes.

_“Ow! You’re making it harder, now I can’t see for five seconds.”_

They went back to trying to find the right keyhole, while you raked your brain in an attempt to remember.

“Hey, maybe try that weird box next to the fridge. That’s got a keyhole.”

“ _Listen, I don’t wanna be a stickler for details, but, really, you should start saying ‘over’ when you’re done talking. Over.”_

You allowed yourself to laugh before speaking into the walkie-talkie.

“What was that, detective? You weren’t coming through clear. Over.”

 _“Never mind, it self-corrected. Over.”_ You shook your head.

“Okay. Well, on that, you have thirty minutes left until the doctor returns. Over.”

_“It’s cool, baby. We’re cruising now. Over.”_

_“Tell him to stop at Jack In The Box or something!”_ You heard Arin shout from far away. _“Oh, for flip’s sake!”_

You noticed that Arin was now on the other side of the room, ignoring your instructions and instead opting to turn the red valve that sat ominously in the smack center of a tile counter. He was hunched over it, his arms beginning to shake with the force he required to turn the wheel, until you heard a clicking sound, and watched as the tub began to drain.

 _“Oh, whoa! We did it!”_ Dan cheered triumphantly. _“That’s good because I was getting bored.”_

“Well, I wouldn’t let yourself feel that way again, detective,” you warned. “One little slip, and you’re dead men for sure.”

 _“The bathtub’s draining,”_ Arin whispered, completely ignoring your words. _“There was something in there the whole time.”_

The liquid slithered down the drain, dragging the rest of its blobby body along until all of it had disappeared, slowly feeding itself toward the ocean now. You could just imagine the sudden panic the creatures would fly into when their blue ocean waters suddenly leaked blood.

That is, if ocean creatures had the mental capacity to panic. Did they?

_“I knew it.”_

_“That looks like a little monster face right there,”_ Arin observed, pointing his flashlight at the three holes in the top of the tub’s basin.

_“What does?”_

_“Do you see that?”_

_“I don’t.”_

Considering Arin was pointing right at it, you had to question whether Dan was messing with him or not.

_“It looks like it’s going ‘ooooh’.”_

_“’Ooooh.’ Now I see it!”_ He paused for a moment. _“This is making me have to pee.”_

The blood had now thinned out to the point of being able to see the bottom, and you noticed a couple of small, red numbers staining the pristine white. You zoomed in on the image to see the numbers ‘007’, and suddenly, you remembered what the James Bond code unlocked.

“Dan, Arin, that’s the code for the box by the fridge!”

Without replying, the officers raced over to the small plastic cover, and Arin moved his thumb against the silver numbers, until the lock clicked, and he was able to yank it apart.

_“Yes! We got it!”_

_“Neat.”_

Out from it, he pulled a small, slender battery; the last one needed to make the blender functional. Dan popped it into its slot, then the two of them moved toward the front of it, looking down at the different buttons that, not doubt, would end in the death of that poor fish. Little Arnold hadn’t lived a long life yet… Then again, goldfish really don’t live that long.

 _“Okay, so, should we blend now?”_ Arin sounded hesitant. He started to hover his finger over the button, but as Dan groaned in disgust, he drew back. _“Right?”_

_“I guess?”_

Arin stepped out of the way and held his hands up as though this were a surrender. Dan looked down at the blender, huffing and puffing and shaking his hands as though he were psyching himself up for a marathon.

And suddenly, Arin broke out into a pitchy parody of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”

_“And I-E-I will always fiiiiiish- will always love fiiiiish.”_

_“Fiiiiiish,”_ Dan chimed in, horribly out of tune. _“Wait, wait, wait, almost got it, almost got it.”_ They tried it again. _“Almost got it.”_ And although it still sounded horrible, they decided it was the right note.

You, on the other hand, were growing impatient. Time was running out, and you felt a burning desire to escape. Your mouth was already salivating at the thought of freedom, out among other people, _thousands_ of people.

_“There it is. All right, let’s do it!”_

_“Go ahead.”_

Dan started to move toward pressing the button, but suddenly drew back.

_“I don’t wanna do it. You do it.”_

_“Yeah, you do it.”_

_“You do it.”_

_“No, you do it.”_

_“(Y/N), you do it.”_

“Seriously?” you scoffed. “One of you grow a pair and blend the fucking fish.”

_“I don’t wanna do it.”_

_“I know. I don’t, either.”_

_“Goddammit, who’s gonna fucking do it?”_

_“R-Ryan?”_

_“Ryan’s not here!”_

“Just do it!”

_“Fine!”_

Dan’s finger slammed down onto the button.


	5. Chapter 5

You couldn’t see the pair when they had gone into the fridge, since the camera in there no longer worked, but you could clearly hear their screams as they looked upon the bodies in there. They hung from the ceiling, still as a lake before sunrise, and stunk of death, ripping through nostrils and making those unfortunate enough to stumble in nauseous. You’d also heard an, “oh, fuck!” as one of the detectives hit their head against the secret tunnel on the way out.

The computer screen had finally lit up, and the three of you were so close to getting out of here. You could taste the sour victory in your mouth, dripping down your lips so quickly you barely got the chance to wipe them.

“I can see the computer screen now, you guys!”

You smiled.

“The password should be in that top drawer, small piece of paper.”

Dan reached into the drawer beside Arin and pulled out just that, reading the letters out loud as Arin typed them in.

“I, Y-”

“I why!” Arin joked.

“-space. P, H, L, K, Y, M.” Arin repeated back the code for Dan, perfectly reciting it. “That’s it.”

The screen changed to reveal thousands of unorganized files, each one a last name, then a first name. You couldn’t believe it. All the victims, right there, and there was no way to take a picture of it. If those officers could, this would crack the case on Dr. P. You knew the names “Hanson, Arin” and “Avidan, Leigh” were in there somewhere, given those two were there at this current moment.

That’s when your eyes bounced to the clock, and you quickly snatched the walkie-talkie back up.

“Fifteen minutes left, detectives.”

“Oh, fuck, that’s actually kind of unsettling.”

You watched as they scurried around the room, looking like lobsters knowing they’re about to go in the pot, boiled alive. They opened cabinets and doors, trying their best to find the next clue, but to no avail. They were shit out of luck.

And that was why you decided to help them out.

“Officer Avidan, Detective Hanson, the combination to the Bieber picture is ‘4-1-3’.”

Dan looked up at the camera for a moment, almost appearing shocked, before running over to the poster and yanking it off the lock box. Arin, meanwhile, was clearly descending into madness at the thought of his inevitable demise, because he started to spin in circles, repeating the code until Dan got the lock open and pulled out… an envelope? And addressed to them, no less.

“To Dan and Arin,” the former listed read. “Oh, that’s nice.”

“Regarding your upcoming appointment. Uh-oh, I don’t like where this is going.”

Dan opened the envelope, and as soon as he looked at what was inside, he froze. You knew exactly what was on that paper, you’d seen it a million times. It was a picture of the two of them, their unconscious bodies strewn out across the cement, with the caption ‘you all look very TASTY’. Neither of them said a word for easily a minute, before deciding to move on from the clock they knew was close to reaching zero.

“God, this whole place smells like Ryan’s farts,” Dan groaned.

“Oh, yeah.”

They resumed scampering around the room, trying to find that final clue that would open the lock and get them out of there. You were prepared to sprint to that room… one way or another. Maybe, just maybe, you could save them if the doctor came back before they escaped.

Your eyes switched to the clock again, and suddenly, there was only one minute left. Dread filled the pit of your stomach as you raised the walkie-talkie against your lips.

“O-One minute remaining, detectives…”

They were sent into a screaming panic. Arin grabbed onto Dan and started violently shaking him as the two of them shouted.

“Why are we- how are we- we’re trapped!” Arin cried, his voice cracking out of fear.

“We’re never gonna get out of here.”

With walkie-talkie still in hand, you bolted out of your seat and flew open the door. Your bare feet pounded against the bloody cement, staining the bottoms, but you didn’t care. The tatters of a coat flew out behind you as your arms pumped up and down, desperately hoping to reach the room just in time.

“We’re never gonna get out.”

“Arin, we’re gonna fucking die!”

“I know…”

The door to the room opened just as you rounded the corner, and you watched a tall, lanky figure in a stained lab coat enter.

“WELL, THEN WE’RE-”

Just before the door shut, you burst in. Dan and Arin seemed so shocked to see an actual person behind the voice, and the doctor… his smirk never became less menacing. Slowly, he creaked around, his beady eyes hidden beneath the glare on his glasses.

“So… you’ve been aiding them in this… game,” he concluded. “I wondered who they were speaking to.”

Arin’s arms slowly lowered to his sides, from the classic surrender position. He looked past the looming figure of Doctor P- almost the height of Dan- to stare you down.

“So clever, (Y/N),” the doctor continued. “Trying to escape before your purpose has been fulfilled- before your job is done.”

“You’re working with him?”

The chickens started to back away, cowering from what they now saw as a monster- you.

“I- no- not… not willingly!”

“Did you think you could run? That you would be safe once you left these cursed walls?”

“Clearly, I was wrong for thinking I could return to a life.”

Doctor P turned around to salivate of Dan and Arin as you continued to speak.

“I was wrong for thinking I could escape my sentence.”

He didn’t notice as you reached for one of the hypodermic needles on the counter.

“And I was wrong… to think you were smarter than you really are.”

The doctor registered what you were saying and quickly whipped around, and that was when you took your shot.

“Dan, Arin, go!”

As the detectives took each side, you charged toward the doctor. He lunged for Dan, attempting to grasp even a little something that could pull him back in, but before he could even get close to touching him, you kicked his hand, allowing both detectives out the steel door. Dan turned around and stared at you as you attempted to jam the needle into his arm, but instead, it struck the ground, and the fragile point snapped.

“(Y/N), come on!” Arin screamed.

“Go, go,” you urged.

“Come on!”

You shot up to your feet and started to run toward the door, but before you could, something grabbed onto your feet and yanked you back. Ferociously, you kicked and struggled, attempting to lose your shackles. Something below you cracked, and the grip on you released. Quick as a rabbit, you darted up and took one of each person’s hand, allowing them to yank you out the door. Just as the doctor was able to stand, you slammed the door behind you, sealing him in.


	6. Epilogue

Sunlight.

It was something you hadn’t seen in years, and for a time, you thought you would never see again. The concrete below you was cool as the wind and danced through your (Y/H/C) hair, as the beams caused the pupils of your (Y/E/C) to shrink. But you didn’t care. You were out in the world again.

It was delectable.

“There they are!”

You followed Dan’s point to see a blue and white police car pulling up on the sidewalk. Two men in the front stared at Dan and Arin as though they were candy, then flickered to you with confusion.

“That guy in the passenger seat, that’s Ryan,” Arin explained. “And the one driving is Vernon.”

You nodded. The men they’d been talking about… more people.

Carefully, the pair guided you to the car, and once you climbed in, you slid all the way down on the leather seats, allowing Dan and Arin to come in beside you. Vernon and Ryan turned around, and their smiles widened.

“You’re alive!” Ryan exclaimed.

“We thought you were goners! Oh, man, it’s so good to see you.” Dan nodded.

“Uh, this… this is (Y/N). She was down there as well, and she helped us get out.”

Vernon reached out to shake your hand. You flinched at first, then slowly reached out and grasped it. So firm…

“Nice to meet you, (Y/N).”

“And thanks for helping our best officers get out of there,” Ryan added.

“Let’s get back to the station,” Arin urged. “We’ve cracked the case.”

The police car started to move, and you stared out the window. All those years, and here it was- a blue sky with drifting, fluffy clouds. Buildings and trees alike towered over all of you, passing by at first so slowly, you could distinguish their features, until they became a blur. People walked by in their busy lives, completely unaware.

They’d escaped, _you’d_ escaped. Fate sealed.

You turned back to look at the vehicle’s interior.

You smirked from the back of the cop car, salivating as you stared down the back of Vernon’s head with shining eyes.

_Desensitized, indeed._


End file.
